Happy (40th!) Birthday To Me!
"Let us ... shape our views of existence into loveliness, freshness, and continuity, rather than into age and blight." --Mary Baker Eddy
As this edition of my author newsletter finds its way to you, I’m in a state park somewhere in Virginia with my husband and The Littles celebrating my 40th birthday, which we’ve been busy doing since New Year’s Eve.
Between Christmas, (far too long of) a stint feeling unwell, and this long-awaited birthday trip, I haven’t had time to compose a comprehensive introduction for this issue, so, in place of my musings (which likely would’ve focused on aging, my life thus far, and becoming a “real” adult) here’s an excerpt from This Day in History my Debut Novel, An Expected End.
Chapter 61
Penelope, 2 January 2046, Age 27, T-minus 1
The tree was still up, though Penelope’s last Christmas had come and gone. Ken had made sure to commemorate the occasion with an “Our Last Christmas Together” ornament.
Never mind that this was also their first Christmas together. No one had bought them an ornament for that.
Ken’s gift remained in the original box, shoved into a corner of the attic to be forgotten. “It would,” Marshall had vowed, “never grace the bough of a Christmas tree in my house.” Penelope sighed and looked out the window. Snowflakes drifted through the air, reminding her oddly of spring. She had always loved the way the white grace of pear blossoms drifted through the sunlight on a warm day. When she died, she would drift out of this world like a snowflake or a wayward petal, just as her daughter drifted in. The start of the new year marked the last month of her life. She would not see the calendar flip to February. Today was her birthday, cozied-up conspiratorially in the same month as her deathday. The dates actually resided in the same column on the calendar – the first Tuesday, and four squares downs, the last Tuesday.
Until enrollment, she’d always believed there’d be about fifty more birthdays. She’d had no idea this was her last. She’d always dreaded turning thirty. A little afraid the decade would make her feel old. Now, she was jealous that she’d never turn thirty. Or forty. Perhaps a deathday was actually a celebration of how much life was waiting, not so different from a birthday. The day wasn’t to celebrate a beginning, but then again, was it to celebrate an end? What if a deathday was to honor that a person was alive, and the end was years away?
What difference did it make? Since enrollment, her life had been a series of finalities. So many firsts were also her lasts—her onlies. Her first and last Christmas with Marshall. Her first and last New Year’s Eve with Marshall. Her first and last birthday with Marshall. Bittersweet.
Outside the window, snowflakes still drifted through the air. Time was moving too fast, her days falling away. She wished she could slow it down, or better yet, stop it.
What I’m Working On
My Debut Novel: An Expected End
In addition to my own birthday, today is my female protagonist, Penelope’s, birthday—though (spoiler alert!) she doesn’t get to see 40.
I’m looking forward to a Barnes & Noble appearance later this month (details at the bottom of this issue) and a book club appearance in March. Sometime this month, I should find out whether or not I was accepted to participate in the 2024 Virginia Festival of the Book.
My Next Novel: Goodbye For Now
Now that the new year has arrived, it’s officially time for me to redirect some energy toward Goodbye For Now, the first novel manuscript I ever wrote, which needs more than a little TLC. Step one: re-read it to begin determining what stays, what goes, what gets re-written, and what needs to be written.
Outdoor Writing
Lots of fun adventures are in the works in this area of my writing life, from a dog-friendly boat tour to see ponies on the Eastern Shore to a hike through Virginia’s Slot Canyons/Great Channels in the western part of the state. My writing travel calendar is filling up fast!
Volunteering
The winter issue of The Bay Quarter bulletin successfully landed in community members’ inboxes yesterday.
What I’m Reading
I’m just about done reading Matt Cricchio’s Security Day, which I’ll likely follow with Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us. If I’m being honest, there are several other books I’d rather get to first, but I’d like to finish It Ends With Us before the end of winter break so I can return it to the student who lent it to me before our semester ends. (This goal is probably a bit ambitious, given my reading pace these days, but I definitely won’t finish before break ends if I don’t start before break ends, so…)
Links to My Latest
My piece about the abandoned presidents’ heads outside Williamsburg, Virginia, is finally out in the world. “Preserving the Heads of State: Abandoned presidential statues have a bright future in Williamsburg” appears in the “Explore More” column of the January/February 2024 issue of Cooperative Living Magazine.
I finally got my hands on my own copy of Richmond photographer Jackie McCool’s first coffee table book, Beer Dogs Virginia. Features include a full-page photo of Soda with accompanying bio, a full-page photo of Nacho with accompanying bio, and an essay I wrote about Jack, Sadie, and The Littles, entitled “Hello From Across the Rainbow Bridge.” Here’s a brief excerpt:
The beautiful thing about a bridge is this: you can cross back and forth, as Jack has proven to me over and over again.
The Littles—and Archie!
The whole creature crew lounges on the couch with me over the weekend.
From the back of the couch, Archie and Nacho enjoy an unobstructed view of the back door, and take their watch very seriously.
Soda wallows on the fleece blanket on our couch, totally comfortable in her surroundings.
Soda crosses her paws expectantly ahead of an afternoon walk.
Nacho waits for his daddy to get home from work.
Archie yawns as he enjoys some head rubs on the couch on a recent morning.
What I Saw Outside
Below: Dew droplets like crystal on a dandelion head in a field near our house
Crinkle cookie clouds on Christmas Eve morning
Literary Calendar
January
January 20, 2024 | 1pm-3pm | An Expected End Reading and Signing at Chesterfield Town Center Barnes & Noble
Join me for a 10- to 15-minute reading from my debut novel, An Expected End, followed by the opportunity to purchase a copy (or copies!) and have it (them!) signed.
Thank you! Happy New Year to you, too!
Happy birthday! And happy new year!!